I was really excited about receiving this book not too long ago, and needless to say I wasn’t disappointed in what I read. I haven’t sat down to read a book from cover-to-cover in years, this time mostly out of obligation, but otherwise the story was gripping, well-written, the characters were awesome and established, and the end left me gobsmacked – yup, I said it, gobsmacked!

I’m going to have much difficulty trying to review
this book without giving away too much. So much detail!!

Taking place in a fictitious place called Oldcliffe-on-the-Sea, a sleepy tourist town that has been plagued with the loss of a local girl, Sophie. Eighteen years later some body parts have washed up on the shores and in the bulbous remains is a foot still inside a sneaker – one that looked a lot like the Sophie’s shoe, that she was last seen wearing.

Months after Sophie’s disappearance, her best friend, Frankie, and her family decided to sell the local hotel they established as home and move themselves to London where they continued to grow the hotel business. Frankie is in charge of all of this since her father had a stroke and was hospitalized. In the midst of taking care of business and working on opening a third hotel, Frankie receives a call from her past – Sophie’s brother, Daniel.

Daniel tells the story of the remains being found and wants Frankie to come back and help him figure out who really did his sister in. Although she didn’t want to because of priorities, she agrees to go back to Oldcliffe and help him.

Overall, I liked the way the story unfolded and the surprise ending – I dunno if other readers had figured it out long before me, but I was shocked until the very end. I cried. I laughed out loud. This story has as much tragedy as it does “awe moments”. I highly recommend.

Should this book want to make it’s appearance in a high school library, I believe senior high school would be suitable. There are some explicit language, but nothing too extreme that I would consider it out-of-the-ordinary.